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March 15, 2017

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Toshiba mulls sale of US nuke operations

Source: AP | March 15, 2017, Wednesday | Print Edition

TROUBLED Japanese nuclear and electronics company Toshiba Corp yesterday said it was considering selling its money-losing Westinghouse operations in the United States.

President Satoshi Tsunakawa said the company was looking at selling its majority stake in Westinghouse and making a priority trying to get the energy giant’s battered results off its books.

“We want to deal with this properly,” he said at a news conference after the company won approval for a second delay in reporting its earnings for the October-December quarter.

“We are working on nurturing our growth businesses to return to stable growth by fiscal years 2018 and 2019,” Tsunakwa added, reiterating apologies to stakeholders.

Toshiba had been scheduled to report earnings yesterday, after delaying the report due in February because of auditing problems. It now has until April 11 to produce the report.

The company released a plan saying it was speeding up its review of the US nuclear business, including possibly selling Westinghouse. It said it intends to expand in renewable energy while also working on its nuclear business in Japan to try to restore stable growth.

Toshiba is expecting a group net loss of 500 billion yen (US$4.3 billion) for the April-December period of last year, including a 712.5 billion yen hit from its embattled nuclear business.

Its chairman has resigned to take responsibility for the company’s troubles.

Toshiba acquired Westinghouse in 2006 with much fanfare, making nuclear power an important part of its business strategy.

But that was before the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, which has boosted the costs of the business because of growing safety concerns and regulations, and a souring of sentiment toward nuclear power in some countries, such as Germany.

Westinghouse’s purchase in 2015 of CB&I Stone & Webster, a nuclear construction and services business, was meant to secure more business in decontamination, decommissioning and plant projects, but the acquisition just amplified those problems.

Auditors questioned Toshiba’s latest reporting on the acquisition of CB&I Stone & Webster after a whistleblower, an employee at Westinghouse, wrote a letter to the Westinghouse president.

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